$600 million in renovations, upgrades planned to New Hanover utility systems

By Chris MazzoliniChris.Mazzolini@StarNewsOnline.com

Monday

Jul 27, 2009 at 12:09 PM

One year after it took over control of the water and sewer system, the authority is busy moving dirt and laying pipes, expanding treatment plants and planning for future growth.

The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority is under construction.One year after it took over control of the water and sewer system, the authority is busy moving dirt and laying pipes, expanding treatment plants and planning for future growth.All told, the authority plans over the next decade to sink as much as $600 million into renovating and upgrading its collection and treatment systems. What it means is Wilmington’s ill-reputed water and sewer system – more lately known for its bursting pipes and over-burdened pumps – is getting its most complete overhaul in decades.It also means that the area’s historically low water and sewer rates will be climbing over the next few years as customers pay off the debt needed to improve the infrastructure. Officials estimate that annual debt payments will reach $32 million in 2013, consuming nearly half of the annual budget.“We inherited a huge debt, and we will incur our own debt as we go forward,” said Gene Renzaglia, chairman of the authority. “I know the public doesn’t want to hear this, but the rates will go up.”By 2013, the authority’s best projections show the average residential customer, who uses 12,000 gallons of water every two months, would pay $687 annually for water and sewer – $140 more than now.Like highways and bridges, water and sewer projects are easy for politicians to put off because they are so eye-poppingly expensive and take years to complete.It’s much easier for elected officials to appease voters by keeping rates low and neglecting expensive upgrades. The Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina estimates that about half of North Carolina’s utilities don’t bring in enough money to support adequate maintenance.“We have a lot of data to show that, on average, water utilities in North Carolina and in the Southeast have not been charging nearly enough,” said Andrew Westbrook, project director at UNC’s Environmental Finance Center. “A lot of communities are not investing enough to keep their assets replaced. The primary culprit here is just this fear of raising rates.”The other factor is that water and sewer isn’t a “sexy” issue for communities to deal with, Westbrook said. Most people take those basic services for granted.That is, until something goes wrong.It wasn’t until Wilmington’s pipes began breaking and spewing sewage into area creeks that residents demanded that elected officials fix the problem. The Wilmington City Council and the New Hanover County commissioners responded, spending millions of dollars on studies and plans for pipe fixes and capacity expansions.They also created the authority, which is solely responsible for water and sewer service. It’s an organization designed to run more like a business and can respond pro-actively with minimal political interference.By July 2008, when the utility authority took over, the city and county handed over hundreds of millions worth of projects, including planned expansions of the Northside and Southside sewage plants and the Sweeney water plant, and construction of a new “nanofiltration” water plant to serve customers in the Ogden area.Those four projects alone will cost roughly $285 million. They will expand the area’s sewage capacity from 20 million gallons per day to 32 million gallons daily and allow the authority to make at least 41 million gallons of drinking water per day, up from about 28 million gallons today.Best projections have those expansions lasting a few decades. In addition, each plant is being designed with room for easy future expansion, officials said.Mike Richardson, drinking water superintendent, said the water projects will provide capacity for future growth and also, for the first time, give customers across the county the same quality water. Right now about 17,000 residents in unincorporated New Hanover have to use water softeners or home treatment systems and have lower quality water than customers in the city.The new nano plant and some strategic interconnections will fix that, Richardson said.“The two systems will basically deliver all the water we need and pretty much be the same blend,” Richardson said.On the sewer side, upgrades to the plants and overcapacity pump stations will provide more capacity for future growth, said Kenneth Vogt, wastewater treatment superintendent for the authority.The new Northside plant also has advanced odor-control technologies that cut down on the smells wafting through nearby neighborhoods, Vogt said. The Southside plant will have those same technologies when its upgraded.Officials say all the projects are pieces of an overall management plan that will allow the authority to have capacity for new development and expand into areas of the county that don’t have utility services. It also will allow them to consider partnering with outside governments, such as the authority’s preliminary plans to build a new plant and pipes with Pender County to serve the U.S. 421 corridor.“We have to draw all of these together to form a strategic plan that involves all these changes going on and expansions that are occurring,” Renzaglia said. “We have to take care of current issues, but also look to the future and make sure the system we need is in place and functioning as we go forward.”

Chris Mazzolini: 343-2223On Twitter.com: @StarNewsOnline

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